Have you ever tried to achieve a Buddha like level of enlightenment? I tried once and lasted less than 24 hours. Too many other distractions were getting in the way, like my work commitments and a real estate purchase I was trying to close.

During Holy Week, I knew I needed to carry my cross down and share the love of God. I cannot let hate and violence continue without question. For the follower of Jesus, the biggest questions are always in the form of a cross.

The speech 'Our revels now are ended' is famous as Shakespeare's farewell address to us, his audience. It is usually delivered indirectly to the theater audience by the retiring magician Prospero near the end of The Tempest , the last play written entirely by Shakespeare and written at the end of his career.

Success isn't just a byproduct of one's desire. Success also requires capability. If you are really serious about achieving what you wish to, developing the right kinds of capabilities, whether of body, mind or both, is essential.

It's not often you see statues of Buddha looking disheveled, balancing a screaming child in one arm and groceries in the other while trying to unlock a front door with his teeth in the rain only to kick open the door and fall on a Hot Wheels toy, do you? Nope -- you don't.

It's been fun to watch pundits try to add something -- anything -- of value to a worldwide discussion about a $77 dress. What the commentators have generally overlooked is the larger and deeper meaning of #TheDress meme. It's about subjectivity in an era that is both global and local.

Beware of extremes and delusions. Recognize everything is an illusion. Along those lines -- perception is not reality, it is deception. Emptiness is not nothingness but is the real nature of phenomena; it is the way things really are as opposed to the way they appear.

We are drawn to places by our dreams, the dreams of our ancestors, and the collective dreaming of people through the centuries. These places are made special for us by what happened there, whether in our personal history or the larger history of the world.